In the canning industry there has long been a requirement for equipment for pitting fruits of the drupe type, such as peaches. To satisfy this requirement, there have been developed various types of equipment for performing such pitting operation with varying degrees of efficiency. However, most of this prior art pitting equipment has been relatively complex, cumbersome, expensive, and generally difficult to clean. Many of these problems have related to the fruit gripping heads and their mechanical operation, which in many prior art devices have promoted the entrapment of particles of the fruit within the heads, thus resulting in an unsanitary condition.